Litchi Mision Hub Auto(TNW) to Custom (WD) question

[Cmacb]

Hi Folks,

Just a newbie here but looking forward to being involved in this great forum. I've been using the Litchi App and VLM for a few months now and have reviewed the help files extensively. One thing I can't seem to figure out is how to change the heading from Auto(TNW) to Custom (WD) for certain waypoints.
Here's the sequence of events for an example:

Go into Mission Settings and set Heading Mode to Auto(TNW)
Place approximately 30 waypoints (headings point to next waypoint..great)
I want to change two waypoints to Custom(WD) however Heading is grayed out.
Go into Mission Settings and set Heading Mode to Custom(WD)
I can now change the heading mode for those two waypoints to whatever I want, however all the other waypoints have changed headings to 0... not what I was expecting!
I could manually rotate all headings for the remaining 28 waypoints but it would be nice if when changing from Auto(TNW) to Custom(WD in mission settings that the waypoints maintain their previous heading.
Hope that's clear as mud..

Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Thanks

 

[Tanner Wells]

Hey I have a p2v+ I see u use litchi. I trying to use it to but I can get it to connect to the qaudcopter. I have a iPhone will it still work?

 

[Cmacb]

Hey I have a p2v+ I see u use litchi. I trying to use it to but I can get it to connect to the qaudcopter. I have a iPhone will it still work?

For drones with a Wi-Fi connection (Phantom 3 Standard/4K, Spark), follow these steps:

1. Make sure no DJI-based apps (including DJI Go, Litchi and other third party DJI drone/osmo apps) are running in the background. If there are any, force kill them
2. Force close all DJI-based apps (including DJI Go and other third party DJI drone/osmo apps). Please note step 1 is not enough. To force close an app, go to your mobile device Settings - Apps - DJI Go (or other app name) - Force close
3. Start your aircraft and remote controller if you are using one, and let them initialize for a few seconds
4. Connect to the Wi-Fi network of the aircraft
5. Start Litchi

iOS

1. Make sure no DJI-based apps (including DJI Go, Litchi and other third party DJI drone/osmo apps) are running in the background. If there are any, force kill them
2. Start your aircraft and remote controller if you are using one, and let them initialize for a few seconds
3. If you have a Wi-Fi based drone (Phantom 3 Standard/4K or Spark): connect to the Wi-Fi network of the aircraft, if you have a USB-based remote controller, plug the remote controller into the mobile device
4. Start Litchi

 

[Avocet]

Hi ... I have been a 3-4 year Litchi user and I don't think that what you are proposing is possible. Those are Mission specific settings and I don't think you can change them in the middle of a mission. That parameter will be saved with a hub miss, can be changed for a new mission, but not blended into a single mission. I could be wrong but ...

Stay safe and stay home.

 

[Cmacb]

Hi Folks,

Just a newbie here but looking forward to being involved in this great forum. I've been using the Litchi App and VLM for a few months now and have reviewed the help files extensively. One thing I can't seem to figure out is how to change the heading from Auto(TNW) to Custom (WD) for certain waypoints.
Here's the sequence of events for an example:

Go into Mission Settings and set Heading Mode to Auto(TNW)
Place approximately 30 waypoints (headings point to next waypoint..great)
I want to change two waypoints to Custom(WD) however Heading is grayed out.
Go into Mission Settings and set Heading Mode to Custom(WD)
I can now change the heading mode for those two waypoints to whatever I want, however all the other waypoints have changed headings to 0... not what I was expecting!
I could manually rotate all headings for the remaining 28 waypoints but it would be nice if when changing from Auto(TNW) to Custom(WD in mission settings that the waypoints maintain their previous heading.
Hope that's clear as mud..

Does anyone have a workaround for this?

Thanks

Solved:
1. Go into Mission Settings from Mission Hub (NOT VLM) and set Heading Mode to Auto(TNW)
2. Place your waypoints (headings will automatically be pointed towards next waypoint)
3. MISSIONS->Export as CSV
4. CLEAR all Waypoints
5. SETTINGS->HEADING MODE->CUSTOM(WD)
6. MISSIONS->Import-Select the file you created in step 3

All Headings should be pointed towards next waypoint, however you can rotate individual waypoints.

 

[DonWiley]

It’s really a choice of one or the other. Personally I always use custom and manually set the headings. Depending on what you’re trying to shoot you can crab through segments of your flights and get great views that you’ll miss if you’re always looking direction of travel. Well worth the extra time to setup, and use the mission hub for setting your courses, it’s so much easier than the touchscreen device

 

[MIGUELLu]

It’s really a choice of one or the other. Personally I always use custom and manually set the headings. Depending on what you’re trying to shoot you can crab through segments of your flights and get great views that you’ll miss if you’re always looking direction of travel. Well worth the extra time to setup, and use the mission hub for setting your courses, it’s so much easier than the touchscreen device

And what happens with the different headings if you loose RC signal for a while? . I know camera pitch won't work.

 

[DonWiley]

Speed and camera gimbal angle are the only items I’m aware that requires coms to continue to function. Speed is only affected if set at a waypoint and not relying on the mission default value. I’ve not tried a long distance straight line mission with waypoint actions without coms but suspect the actions would be affected also. Heading for the aircraft during the mission is unaffected by the loss of coms.

I’ve read that the Mavic mini and Mavic air 2 now supported by litchi don’t support loss of coms flight continuation and do a RTH when it happens. Of these I only have the mini and haven’t tested it on loss of coms.

Loss of coms flights should be a very rare occurrence with all the aircraft remotes having a range of several miles (except p3) and line of sight being the limiting factor. My most common loss of coms happens on early morning flights when the trees have lots of dew on their leaves and are between the aircraft and remote or I’m standing under the trees.

 

[crash1sttime]

Hey I have a p2v+ I see u use litchi. I trying to use it to but I can get it to connect to the qaudcopter. I have a iPhone will it still work?

You cant use an Iphone, Litchi has a specific version for the phantom 2 vision range, called Litchi for the phantom 2, its only available on Android, however DJI have turned off the authentication server so even if you download it you cant get it to work

 

[Billie Nelson]

And what happens with the different headings if you loose RC signal for a while? . I know camera pitch won't work.

The camera heading is completely independent of signal reach from your controller, meaning that all camera directions you programmed in the Litchi Mission hub remain unchanged throughout the flight even if most of the flight is far beyond signal range.

It is essential, however, that you DISABLE camera pitch or tilt angle at the start of long missions that may exceed your controller's signal reach since that variable can only be adjusted while the drone is within signal range.

Since I am not particularly interested in viewing cloud formations, I generally adjust my camera's downward tilt to -20 degrees so that just a sliver of sky is visible, and there it remains until the drone is back within signal range, at which point I could change the camera pitch if I wished to do so.

 

[MIGUELLu]

The camera heading is completely independent of signal reach from your controller, meaning that all camera directions you programmed in the Litchi Mission hub remain unchanged throughout the flight even if most of the flight is far beyond signal range.

It is essential, however, that you DISABLE camera pitch or tilt angle at the start of long missions that may exceed your controller's signal reach since that variable can only be adjusted while the drone is within signal range.

Since I am not particularly interested in viewing cloud formations, I generally adjust my camera's downward tilt to -20 degrees so that just a sliver of sky is visible, and there it remains until the drone is back within signal range, at which point I could change the camera pitch if I wished to do so.

Well in my case my drone is a Mavic Air. It is not difficult to lose RC signal on a mission because the strength and even the channels of the RC signal depend on the country you are at takeoff , (for example on the 5.7 band the power is 30 dbm (FCC) and 14 (CE-Europe)). So it is not unusual to lose the straight vision on a long mission.

Anyway and because of that I prepare a mission on VLM, check it and simulate it on Google Earth. Whe I go to flight the mission I know all the mission (up to 99 Waypoints) is uploaded to the drone and as far as I know That only includes:

-GPS position and Height above takeoff point,
-Heading

If in the planning of the mission you use Point Of Interest (POI) and your order the camera to focus at a POI, the drone heading and tilt angle are calculated immediately , but the gimbal's tilt angle is not stored, has to be transmitted by the RC so it won't work without comms. Is this so?.

On the other hand it is my understanding the speed change requires also comms and also any action you have programmed ("start recording", '"stop recording", "wait x secs", "turn x degs", "take picture",..) is also going to require comms. (I'm I right?)

If it is like that the it sounds reasonable to start the mission recording at 4K at the right speed and with the camera angle fixed at -20º.

Finally one last consideration. We all know a car has a mileage per gallon. That concept doesn't seem to exist in the drone world. The Manual says the battery lasts 21 minutes, but is that at full speed all the time?, hovering?, climbing?



Thanks.

MLU

 

[Billie Nelson]

Over the course of numerous fully autonomous flights I discovered that for flights exceeding 15 minutes as estimated by the Litchi mission hub, the drone generally arrived at the takeoff point a full 5 minutes prior to the estimated time of arrival. That margin of error is presumably a safeguard applied by Litchi to all long flights.

Using my Phantom 3 Standard as an example, I routinely plan 6-mile round trip flights that Litchi Mission Hub states will last 27 minutes because I know the drone will complete such flights in 22 minutes and arrive showing between 15% and 20% battery life left. The Phantom 3S battery life is stated as 23 minutes under ideal windless conditions. A handful of times, headwinds caused the drone to execute a smart RTH and make a beeline home after terminating the waypoint mission well beyond the controller's signal range and without any input from me.

I stand to be corrected, but your mention of speed changes, picture taking, and momentary pauses during flight as all requiring preset values to be entered before takeoff, is an accurate picture of Litchi's behavior during long missions. A writer in this forum also cautioned that Litchi missions should not be interrupted during long flights when signal connectivity briefly returns, because if the signal is again lost after Litchi is overridden, the drone may wind up simply hovering in place until the battery runs low enough to force a landing far from home.